


More Is Always Better

by ReginaGoge



Category: Mean Girls (2004), Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: Angst, Angst?, F/F, Fluff, Gay, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, LGBT, Lesbian, im projecting onto janis what about it, mentions of suicidal thoughts/actions, this is not a rejanis fic, wlw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 14:50:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20010097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReginaGoge/pseuds/ReginaGoge
Summary: "As then end of the day neared, Janis was walking toward her locker when she heard her name being called. As she turned, she saw Cady running toward her and waving. She smiled. With friends like hers, there’s no way this school year could be any more difficult than her past years, right?"OrIn which senior year of highschool brings drama (regina redemption arc, anyone?)





	More Is Always Better

**Author's Note:**

> listen,,,,, this was originally gonna be rejanis but I couldn't bring myself to do that to Janis lmao so its cadnis with hints of implied pre-canon rejanis. ALSO I cant figure out how tf to mark this as unfinished,,,, so ill be adding new chapters if I can Figure It Out

September 1st, 2019. First day of senior year. Awesome.

Janis had spent the majority of her summer vacation at either of three places: her bedroom-turned-makeshift-art-studio, her best friend Damian’s house, or her second (but definitely not any lesser) best friend Cady’s house. And while she loved spending time with Damian and Cady, some part of her wished for an escape from the routine of her everyday life. She would wake up, shower, brush her teeth if she had enough energy, and video chat her two friends for a decent part of the next three hours until one of them suggested the other two come over for a movie night. Their summer had been fairly mundane; nothing much out of the ordinary besides the occasional drunken Gretchen and Karen somehow winding themselves up on her doorstep after a wild night of partying.

But they were seniors now; top of the food chain. That meant less time for partying and movie nights and more time for studying and applying for colleges. Janis was hoping to be accepted into this super prestigious art school in New York, but figured that her grades would probably diminish her chances. She wasn’t a bad student; she passed all her classes. But lately she had been getting fewer A’s and B’s and getting more C’s and D’s. It’s not that she wasn’t smart; she just couldn’t be bothered to try any more. As her parents said, she wasn’t “applying herself.” She knew deep down that her future was slowly falling into jeopardy, but that just wasn’t enough to get her out of this… slump? 

Whatever it was, it wasn’t fun.

Janis didn’t consider herself depressed. She had plenty of friends (okay… she had like 4, plus Regina George, who was in their friend group but they never really spent time together outside of it). She wasn’t suicidal anymore; she hadn’t self-harmed in months. Janis knew that there were plenty of people who were worse off than she was- people who didn’t have friends, or family, or teachers they could turn to in their time of need. Janis knew there were plenty of people who had gone through much more than she had, even if at times it felt like she was the most unhappy person in the world. She knew this, yet it did nothing to quell the voices in her head telling her she wasn’t good enough, that she wasn’t trying hard enough.

Janis swore to herself that this school year was going to be different. She was going to put an actual effort into her classes, even if it meant she didn’t have enough time or energy to do things she enjoyed. "It’s my last year here… might as well go out with a bang," she thought to herself as she entered the school for the first time in three months.

First and second period went by without any real problems. She ran into a few girls from last year’s mandatory junior girl meetup in the gym. She recognized one girl as the one who had lowkey touched her butt when they were carrying her. But other than that super exciting revelation, everything had been about as you’d expect as far as first days of school go.

That is, until third period.

When Janis walked into her 3rd period class, AP Language, Regina George was the last person she had expected to see sitting next to the only empty desk in the room. She took a seat, plopping her bag on the ground next to her. They still had about two minutes before the final “get to class” bell rang, so she took a moment to take in the scene around her. Three rows up, two seemingly jock boys were playing catch with a balled up piece of paper which Janis assumed was the paper at the front of the room that they were expected to pick up as they walked in. As Janis began to get up from her seat at the back of the class to get herself one, Regina grabbed her arm, pulling her back down to her chair. 

“Here,” she said. “I grabbed an extra.”

“Uh, thanks,” Janis said, rather stupidly. Regina just laughed.

“So, AP Lang?” Regina asked after about ten seconds of awkward silence.

“Yeah, I needed two more english credits and AP counts as two, so…” Janis trailed off.

Regina took this moment to bring up something that had been on her mind. “Listen, Jan,” she started, but the bell interrupted her mid-sentence. Janis raised an eyebrow at her, not having heard the nickname since they were friends in middle school, and Regina just mouthed, “Later?” and turned to face the teacher at the front of the room, who had begun the period by welcoming the students and had started introducing herself.

The rest of the period had gone by rather smoothly; the class took turns introducing themselves with their names and one cool fact about them. Janis’s had been “I’m pretty good at art and stuff, I guess,” and Regina’s had been “I got hit by a bus last April,” as if the entire student body didn’t already know that about her. When the lunch bell rang, Janis was the first out of her seat, anxious to see her friends (even though it had only been like four days since they last talked in person). Before she could reach the cafeteria, Janis was stopped by Regina yelling at her to wait up. "Great, "she thought to herself, "I get to entertain Regina George." She stopped walking long enough for Regina to catch up to her (she was still kind of slow, being fresh out of a spinal halo and all), then continued walking toward the cafeteria.

They walked in silence, neither of them wanting to bring up the reason it was so awkward for them to be around each other. For Regina, Janis had used her friend and plotted against her for the better half of a school year, but for Janis the hurt ran much deeper. She had been friends- best friends- with this girl, only to have her spit on her heart and out her as a lesbian to the entire school. Fuck, she barely even knew what a lesbian was at that age, let alone the thought of her being one herself. All she really knew is that one day, she and her best friend had kissed during a sleepover, and the next she was being called a “space d*ke” and told she wasn’t allowed to go to a party because she was rumored to be gay. Of fucking course. There’s no way she would’ve been able to kiss Regina George and get away without being hurt.

As they got their lunch trays and headed to their table, Janis saw Cady and practically jumped at the chance to scare her. She crept up behind her and put her hands over Cady’s eyes, whispering, “Guess who?” before laughing her ass off at Cady’s terrified shriek.

“Janis, I’ll kill you!” Cady yelled over the laughter of their table.

The table consisted of Damian and Janis sitting next to Cady on one side, and the three former plastics on the opposite. Janis laughed along with her friends, looking amongst them to see the faces she had missed over the past few months. Gretchen and Karen seemed to be exactly as they always had been: happy to be included. Cady was relieved to finally see her five closest friends sitting at one table and not trying to kill one another. Damian was just along for the ride- he had no particular endgame in mind; he was just thrilled that his friends were finally getting along. But Regina was… different. She laughed along when everyone else did, but her smile didn’t lift into her eyes. There was something off about her, and Janis decided to figure out what it was.

Fourth period- AP Art History- went by without much thought. She had taken regular art history and passed with flying colours, so her counselor decided to stick her into a second AP class, you know, just to “see how it goes.”

If she didn’t do well in this class she could always transfer within the next couple of weeks into something her counselor had described as “less challenging,” and Janis, knowing herself, loved a challenge, so she was going to push herself into doing well in this class, despite every bone in her body telling her she couldn’t handle more than one AP class.

As then end of the day neared, Janis was walking toward her locker when she heard her name being called. As she turned, she saw Cady running toward her and waving. She smiled. With friends like hers, there’s no way this school year could be any more difficult than her past years, right?

**Author's Note:**

> thank u, next (fr y'all I loved writing this,, there will definitely be more in the future) also! this is My First Ever Fic so pls give me criticism in the comments but BE NICE... I am an sensitive baby (find me on Tumblr @reginagoge)


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